Martin Luther King, Jr. and Innovation

by
Amanda Prischak
on
January 16, 2015

Innovation often happens when connections are made between two or more very different concepts or things.

For instance, consider how musical artists have sampled King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech.” Just one example includes a Russian duo who set the speech against techno music in the 1990s. That song came to serve as a rallying cry amid the country’s social upheavals.

A mash-up of techno music and a famous civil rights speech can result in something innovative. Dr. King himself was also innovative. He found much of the inspiration for the Civil Rights Movement in the nonviolent philosophy of Mohatma Gandhi, a man who lived on the other side of the world and who died when King was a young man.

The American Civil Rights movement had elements of not only Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance beliefs, but also of Christianity, African-American spiritual music and more. All of these different elements helped the movement gain support and usher in important civil rights for African-Americans.

ERIE and innovation

ERIE is proud to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., through events like Lexington’s Unity Breakfast. ERIE is also proud to be an innovator within the insurance industry. In 1934, ERIE developed the Super Standard Auto Policy that offered many extra features at no additional cost. Some of these Xtra features (such as “Drive Other Car” coverage) later became included in standard auto policies issued by other insurance companies in the United States. Other features (such as waiving the collision deductible in an accident involving two ERIE-insured autos) have been adopted by other insurance companies over the years.